


Zindi

by Northern_Lady



Category: The Orville (TV)
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Culture, Domestic Violence, Escape, Falling In Love, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Kiss or die scenario, Love, One Shot, Original Character-centric, POV First Person, Romance, Sappy, Slavery, the brig - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 12:22:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18249746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northern_Lady/pseuds/Northern_Lady
Summary: An alien on board the Orville who happens to be weaker than humans struggles with an abusive relationship. Captain Mercer might be the only person who can put an end to it.This is my first story in this fandom. I hope you like it anyway.





	1. Chapter 1

The bruises still hurt when I woke up that morning alongside my husband. I was almost sure that they weren’t just bruises anyhow. Kitarans were not as strong as humans and when my human husband got angry his violence probably wouldn’t have injured a woman of his own species too badly, at least not to the degree that it did me. He had only gotten a little drunk and shoved me against a wall. Had I been human I would have been fine. 

The alarm clock was beeping and he would be waking any moment from his hangover. I sucked in a breath and forced myself to sit up in spite of the pain. I had duties to attend to in the ship’s childcare center. The children who were too young for school needed me. I would not let them down. 

Landon awoke and threw back the covers as I stood across the room struggling to dress myself. He ignored my pain and my efforts and went straight for the bathroom. I finally managed to get my clothes on by the time he emerged from the bathroom. I took a turn of my own in there, also taking time to arrange my red curly hair into a bun to carefully cover my pointed ears. Besides being so petite, all of four feet eight inches tall, my ears were the one feature that made me distinctly not human. I didn’t like for all the humans to notice that I wasn’t like them. It just made me feel more uncomfortable among them than I already did. 

I quickly finished my hair, slipped on my shoes, and headed for the door. Landon was sitting at the table with a breakfast plate in front of him. 

“Zindi,” he called after me, that commanding tone in the way he said my name. “Come back and have breakfast.” 

I turned and obeyed him, taking a plate from the replicator and joining him at the table. 

“I guess I got a little drunk last night,” he said, gazing at a bruise he had left on my jawline. It wasn’t an apology. It never was. “It’s not my fault your people are so fragile. Maybe you should put some makeup on that.” 

“I already did,” I said in spite of knowing he wouldn’t like it. He never liked for me to contradict him. 

“I wasn’t making a suggestion. If Captain Mercer thinks that you’re too weak for this human environment, he’ll send you back. You don’t want to go back do you?” 

“No…” I shook my head, disturbed by the very idea. It wasn’t the first time Landon had made this threat and it frightened me just as much this time as it had the other times. 

“Now don’t you let it worry you. Like I told you when I found you three years back, you’re not gonna be a slave again. I made a promise and I plan to keep it.” 

Landon had found me in a shuttle with failing life support systems and had taken me back to the space outpost where he had been serving at the time. I had tried to escape my former master and when the shuttle malfunctioned, Landon had been there to keep me alive. I hadn’t wanted to marry him. Not really. I had been grateful for my life but even in the first weeks of knowing him, he frightened me. He was manipulative and short tempered and would often try to blame me for his own failings. I had tried to fix the shuttle and run away from him three years ago and he had made it clear that I didn’t have a choice but to stay and be his wife. I barely survived that encounter. The fact that the outpost was huge and very short staffed meant that he could hide me in his room until I recovered enough to finally agree to marry him. I never tried to run away again. I never dared. 

I finished up my meal and headed off for the childcare center. I wasn’t a Union officer but Landon had given me a fake identity which he had traded a lot of valuables to obtain in order to pass me off as a human Ensign. Even though people didn’t know, I still felt out of place among them. I felt isolated. I was pretty sure that was how Landon wanted me to feel, that keeping me isolated was part of how he kept me under control but knowing it to be true didn’t really do anything to help me escape. It didn’t help me figure out which of these people I could trust. 

Before the day was over, one of the kids got sick. It was only a little vomit on my skin. I washed it off thoroughly. However, an hour later I was puking myself, my head was pounding, and I could tell that I had spiked a high fever. After the nausea and retching stopped, I did my best to continue with my work. We Kitarans knew we were weaker that other species but it was ingrained into our culture to never show it. For us, strength and courage were not found in feats of athleticism or bravery in battle but in the ability to stand back up every single time we were knocked down, always ready to do whatever it takes without complaint. So I continued working for another hour before I collapsed on the floor. 

I awoke in sickbay with Doctor Claire Finn standing over me. “Oh good you finally came around. I wasn’t sure when that was going to happen since I’m not sure what species you actually are.” 

“I’m Kitaran,” I said, trying to sit up and letting out a cry of pain when I did, having forgotten how injured I actually was. 

“Lie back down,” she told me firmly. “You are not going anywhere until you explain a few things.” 

“Like what?”

“First of all, where you got all those injuries. I did a scan,” She began to say as the doors to the medbay whooshed open and the Captain entered the room. To my horror, the doctor ignored him and continued speaking. “You have had multiple broken bones over the years. It’s difficult to even get an accurate count’ And currently you have a broken jawbone, three fractured ribs and a torn ligament in your left arm. I need to know what caused this?” 

I glanced over at the Captain who had entered looking like he wanted to make an announcement and now looked as if he had forgotten his announcement entirely. 

“I’d like to know the answer to that too,” the Captain said. “How does that sort of an injury happen on my ship and not get reported?” 

I couldn’t speak. For six weeks Landon had been telling me that the Captain wouldn’t want me here because I am not a Union officer and am too weak for the gravity on this ship. I would be a liability and would have to be sent home. It seemed that now my fears were coming true. 

“It’s not just the injuries Captain,” the doctor continued. 

“Yes, it is!” I interrupted in spite of knowing that it wouldn’t help, she was going to tell him anyway. She was going to tell him I wasn’t human and then it would be the end for me. My heart was racing from terror. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. 

Doctor Finn looked down at her scanner. “You’re heartate is getting very high. I don’t what the normal rate is for your species but I’m thinking this is not good.” 

“Her species?” the captain asked. 

“She’s not human. And I don’t know what to make of her condition.” 

“Human medicine works just fine in low doses,” I said between gasps, knowing from experience at the outpost that it did. 

The doctor gave me an injection and moments later I began to feel myself calming. 

“She’s stable,” Finn said with relief. 

The medbay doors opened a second time and Landon walked in. “Zindi, they told me you were here. Are you okay?” He rushed over to me with an unusual amount of concern and hugged me so firmly that I felt something else break. I let out an involuntary cry of pain. “Let me handle this,” he whispered in my ear. 

Doctor Finn held up her scanner and her jaw dropped with disbelief. 

“What? What happened?” the Captain asked. 

“Step away from her Lieutenant Landon,” the Doctor didn’t sound happy. “You just fractured another of her ribs just now. You had to be aware that whatever species she comes from isn’t nearly as strong as humans are. You had to be aware that she has to be treated gently or something as simple as a firm hug can result in broken ribs.” 

Landon stepped away from me and held up his hands as if in surrender. “Now I admit, sometimes I don’t know my own strength but I never meant to hurt her. You know that’s the truth, don’t you Zindi?” he asked me.

I knew I was expected to defend him. In that moment, I realized that even if Landon was right and the Captain did send me home, I’d rather go home a slave than live with this terror any longer. At least at home the masters were governed by the rules of servitude. They weren’t allowed to abuse their slaves or make them work more than eleven hours a day. It was a difficult life for the slave class but it was better than the one I had right now. 

“Right Zindi?” Landon asked again, sounding a little worried this time. 

I opened my mouth to just tell them the truth and my courage failed me. What if the Captain didn’t believe me? What if he believed Landon and I had to stay here and deal with his anger? “Of course,” I made myself say. “Landon wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose.” 

“Then do either of you want to explain how it is that she isn’t human when her records say she is?” the Captain asked. “That’s a serious breach of security.” 

“She came from a planet that the Union hasn’t officially made contact with. The rest is classified. You can verify that with Admiral Hasting if you want,” Landon said very convincingly. I remembered that it had been Hastings who had gotten me my new identity in the first place. He would verify Landon’s story. 

“I will check into it,” Ed said, 

***

Three days passed and we were given the message by the Captain that the story of my records being classified had checked out. Everything had seemingly gone back to normal. Landon was being his usual self and was oscillating between charming and jerk as quickly as he usually did. That next morning he ordered a meal from the replicator and a malfunction caused it to make his pancakes as a strange looking green goop. He was yelling and swearing at the machine. 

“I’ll get you another one, it’s okay,” I said in an effort to calm him. 

“It is not okay!” he screamed and he hurled the tray at my head. 

I awoke some time later on the floor of our quarters. There was blood dripping out of my left eye and left ear in a pool on the floor. I couldn’t move. 

“Landon?” I called out. He didn’t reply. I needed a doctor but the fear of making him angry by calling for one was making me hesitate. “Computer, locate Landon?” 

“Lieutenant Landon is in his quarters,” the computer replied. Well, wherever he was, I couldn’t see him from where I lay on the floor. 

“Computer, put me through to sickbay,” I said, and it took all my strength to say it. 

“Computer, belay that order,” Landon emerged from the bathroom carrying towels and a bowl of water. “We’re gonna get you taken care of right here.” he said, kneeling down next to me. 

“But I can’t move,” I said, terrified at the prospect. 

“You’ll be fine, you just need a little time to recover.” 

“I can’t move, I could be dying. I need to go to sickbay. Please...I never asked any of the other times...please…” I felt the panic rising within me. 

“Stop begging. It’s not pretty,” he said, wiping away the blood with a towel.

“I’ll be late for work. Where will you tell them I am?” I asked, getting hold of myself. 

“Not sick. I’ll figure it out.” he finished cleaning up the blood and tossed a blanket over me. “Computer, discontinue all communication from this room today and lock the doors when I leave.” And with that, he was gone. 

I tried to get the computer to communicate after that but it obeyed Landon’s orders. I tried to move and it was to no avail. And so after that I tried the only thing left to me, just plain screaming for help. I shouted and screamed and no one came. Eventually I passed out from either exhaustion or pain or blood loss. 

When I awoke again, I found I was able to move my arms but not my legs. I rolled over onto my belly and began to drag myself towards the door panel. If I could get it open and get out into the hallway someone would have to help me. I think I must have passed out several times on my journey across the room. The panel was no help but I was closer to the door and resumed yelling for help. I passed out again and the next time I woke, Captain Mercer was standing over me. 

“Zindi? Zindi, what happened?” he knelt down to my level to ask me. “Computer to sickbay!” 

“Communications from this room have been discontinued by Lieutenant Landon.” 

“Captain’s override. Put me through to sickbay now!” 

The next time I woke, I was in sickbay. I was able to move again and the Doctor and the Captain were standing over me. 

“How are you feeling?” Doctor Finn asked. 

“Much better,” I said, relieved for a moment before I remembered what I had to fear. “Where is Landon?” 

“Not here,” the Captain said. “We wanted to talk to you alone.” 

“Why?” I asked, wary of what might be happening. 

“Well, when Landon got down to engineering this morning Chief Brandon noticed that that there was blood on his cuffs. Brandon came up to the bridge to tell me himself about the blood because he said it really weirded him out. At first I thought it was nothing, that it had to be spaghetti sauce or ketchup or something. Then Bortus complained that the childcare center was understaffed today and his head hurt because there had been too many screaming children when he dropped his own kid off,” The captain explained. “So I went to your quarters myself and had to manually override the door lock just to get in. Then there was a trail of blood on the floor.and communications switched off….so you tell me, how often does Landon hurt you?” 

I was still hesitant to answer. “What will happen if I tell you that he does?” 

“I will personally throw him in the brig and he will stay there until he is discharged from the Union and put in prison where he belongs.” 

I couldn’t help it. I started to cry at those words. It was the first time in years anyone had offered me any real hope. “He does hurt me,” I sobbed out the truth. “Almost every day. If he’s in the brig, what will you do with me? Are you gonna send me home now?” 

“I would say yes but you say that almost like you don’t want to go home,” he said, a little confused at my question. 

“I was a slave on my home world of Kitara, born to the slave class. I was running away from slavery when Landon found me. I tried to escape him at first, I didn’t want to marry him but...in the end it was just a new kind of slavery...I’d rather not go back home but if it’s a choice of home or Landon, I will go home. No one beats their slaves on Kitara. There are rules for their treatment. The work is hard and it is miserable but I escaped it once. I could try again.” 

The Captain was shaking his head. “No, I’m not returning you to slavery. That’s not something we do here.” 

“Landon said you would. He said that because I am not really a Union officer and because I am too weak for the ship’s gravity, you would have no choice but to send me home.” 

“If you’re not an officer, and he conspired with an Admiral to say that you were, that’s his crime, not yours. As for the gravity, there are other aliens on this ship that aren’t living in their ideal environment. As far as I am concerned, you could stay as a civilian employee.” 

“An employee?” I mused aloud. “An employee isn’t a slave…” 

“No, an employee isn’t a slave at all. You would be free to leave at any time,” he told me almost kindly. “But if you do decide to stay here, you’d be safe. No one is going to hurt you like Lieutenant Landon did ever again. Not if I have anything to say about it.” 

Then I couldn’t help it, I sat up from the medical table, ignoring the doctor’s protests to lie back down until she had finished treating my fractures. I slid off the edge of the table and barely had the strength to stand. I didn’t need my strength for long anyway. It took only three steps to reach the Captain and hug him with every ounce of thankfulness I had. For a moment he was stunned and then he overcame his shock and hugged me in return and did so more gently than Landon ever had. After a short time, Doctor Finn insisted that I return to the table and finish treatment. I made myself let go of him and did as she asked. 

I remained in sickbay for two days. Doctor Finn wanted to observe my healing for a little while longer since she knew so little about my species. The captain stopped by to check in on me a few times, to let me know that Landon was in the brig and then just to see how I was healing. I found myself looking forward to his visits. I awoke early on the second morning to the sound of hushed voices, the captain and the doctor. 

“As far as I can see, her fractures are all healed,” Claire was saying. “It’s the invisible injuries that worry me.” 

“Invisible injuries?” Ed asked. 

“The psychological trauma. Not only did that poor woman spend her entire life in a system of slavery, she escaped it to become trapped in domestic abuse, to essentially a different kind of slavery. I can tell you from monitoring her vital signs that she does not feel safe here. Most of the male officers who come in here have her terrified even though on the outside she looks very stoic every time they visit. The only people who don’t cause her internal panic response are the two of us,” Claire explained to him. 

“Well, I’m glad she isn’t afraid of me but what are you trying to suggest here? I am not a therapist. There’s not a lot I can do to help her through her trauma.” 

“What I am trying to say is that while the sickbay is a safe place for physical healing, and therapy with Doctor Galvry will help, but Zindi needs a safe place to recover from her psychological trauma. A temporary place of course, but it’s not an offer I can make. My two boys are not ready to share their space with any guests just yet. Not after what happened with Isaac. It’s your offer to make,” Claire suggested. 

“You really don’t think she’d be happier alone in quarters of her own?” Ed asked, a little confused. “Obviously I wouldn’t hurt her but she can’t be comfortable with the fact that every human is like four times her strength, me included.” 

“Look at it this way, if you were on a ship filled with people who were so strong that they could kill you without even trying, would you prefer a room alone, defenseless, or a room with the one person who had the power to throw anyone who hurt you in the brig?” 

“Well when you put it that way…” Ed said, as if he were seriously thinking it over. 

“Plus this is a chance for you to learn about an uncontacted alien culture. I know it’s a lot to ask and I wouldn’t ask it if I thought there was a better way but I am worried about my patient here and Doctor Galvry can only do so much. If it’s not something you can do, I understand. Zindi seems very resilient. She will find a way to heal. I had just hoped to make it easier for her.” 

“No...no I can do it. I sort of feel like I owe her that much. One of my officers was abusing her right under my nose and I didn’t see it. I should have seen it. She can stay for a month or two just to get through some therapy and adjust to her freedom a bit, if she wants that anyway.” 

“Thank you, I’ll let her know that it’s an option,” Claire said. 

***

The first night in the Captain’s quarters felt odd to me. His rooms were almost exactly the same as the rooms I had shared with Landon. He set up a cot for himself in the living room area and given the bedroom to me but otherwise everything was almost the same. We had a quiet dinner and chatted a little about the geography of my homeworld and his. I got up from the table to go to bed and without meaning to made a grimace of pain. 

“Are you okay?” Ed asked me with concern. He had told me I could call him Ed since I wasn’t an officer under his command anyway. “Doctor Finn said all your injuries were fully healed...if you need to go back to sickbay…” 

“I am healed, it’s just, after a full day on my feet in this gravity, everything always hurts,” I explained. 

“Computer, decrease the gravity settings in this room,” he said immediately. 

The relief I felt at the adjusted settings was instantaneous. It made it easier to move, easier to breathe so I no longer had to struggle for breath. I no longer felt weighed down by my own body or as if my very existence was an ongoing struggle. I collapsed back down into my chair. After three years of constant pain from the high gravity the lack of it was overwhelming. I was ashamed of myself for crying about it but I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. 

“Oh god…” I sobbed, “I can breath...I can move…” 

“Why the hell didn’t you say anything before now?” Ed asked me, still concerned. 

“Kitarans don’t ask for help,” I explained, getting a hold of myself. “All of us, even the wealthy class and the scholar class are raised with the ideal that our greatest strength is in our endurance of whatever ills life hands to us, without complaint and without seeking outside assistance. We call it, Jadeera. I betrayed those ideals, I betrayed Jadeera, when I ran from slavery and again when I screamed for help three days ago after Landon injured me. If I said anything to ask for adjustments in the gravity it would have only proven how weak I am.” 

Ed thought about my words for a moment. “As a Union Captain, it isn’t my place to judge the culture of another species. If your people believe they have to endure every hardship without complaint or ever asking for help, on the surface, that doesn’t seem like such a bad thing. It sounds like your people have a good work ethic. But it is my job, part of my work, to keep the people on my ship safe. I can’t do that if you don’t tell me that the gravity settings are wrong for your species or that one of my officers is abusing you. After this, don’t look at it as asking for help. I need you to help me do my job by telling me what adjustments need to be made for your safety. Can you do that?” 

“I think so,” I nodded but not entirely sure I could do that at all. 

“Really?” he asked, sensing my hesitation. “You know your people probably only teach you that stuff just to keep the slaves under control?”

I nodded again. “I know. We all know that. And yet we continue to follow it anyway because we can never break free of our slavery. The only power left to us as slaves is the power to endure, to face our hopeless existence day after day no matter what the masters hand to us. We will never let them see that they hurt us and we will never let them break us. It’s all we can do and we do it well. And the scholar class and the wealthy class are at the mercy of three nearby worlds who plunder Kitara every year and demand tribute. If we slaves fail to generate enough tribute, the raiders will execute members of all classes, even the upper class as punishment. Those upper classes follow Jadeera too and they never complain or retaliate their losses. None of us have any choice but to endure our lot in life but if we have to endure we will do it bravely.” 

“But that’s my point, here you don’t have to just endure it. You have a choice,” Ed explained. “And no one here doubts your bravery or thinks you are weak. Doctor Finn said you’ve had 218 broken bones in your lifetime and you never mentioned it once to anyone here. There’s nothing whiny or weak about that. But we’re your friends here now, or we’d like to be. There are no masters, there are no alien raiders. There is no need for Jadeera here. It’s okay to ask your friends for help if you really need it.” 

He had a point, I had to admit. “How do I know when I need it?” I finally asked. 

“When you’re in pain, when there’s a threat to your safety or your life for one,” he told me. 

“Maybe...maybe I could try to do that,” I agreed. It was a reasonable concept anyway. I still wasn’t sure I could put it into practice but I could agree that it was a decent idea. 

“I hope you do,” he said sincerely. 

***

The next day a suit was made for me that kept me at the correct gravity settings anywhere on the ship. I almost cried when Ed brought it to me but managed an emotional thanks instead. For the next couple of weeks I was able to go anywhere on the ship without pain, without struggling to breath and at night in his quarters he adjusted the room settings so I could sleep in ordinary clothes without feeling weighed down. I was finally feeling like I was safe on this ship full of humans and Ed had done a lot to help me with that. 

It was the fourth week of staying in Ed’s rooms when I realized I was pregnant. I was kneeling over a toilet puking up my breakfast and it all came to me, the fact that I had missed a cycle, that I didn’t have a fever, the fact that Landon had forced me to his bed recently enough that I had to be pregnant. I cleaned myself up and exited the bathroom feeling more distraught than I had in weeks. 

“What?” Ed asked from the table where he sat finishing his own breakfast. “Something wrong?” 

“I think I’m pregnant,” I made myself say. 

Ed didn’t say a word. He clearly didn’t know what to say. “We should get you to sickbay.” 

“I don’t want to go to sickbay,” I said in a near whisper. 

“Why not? Don’t you want to at least be sure of what’s going on?” 

“Kitaran pregnancy is different than for humans,” that much was true. My people didn’t just gestate their young and give birth in nine months. It was a task they were unable to do without a partner. My people never broke Jadeera in the case of pregnancy but everyone knew that a woman and unborn child needed enzymes from a man, preferably the father of the child in order for both of them to survive the ordeal. It was our biological way of ensuring that children and pregnant women were taken care of and it was harsh because if the father was unavailable, and no male took his place, the mother and baby would die. But no one ever said nature was kind. I would never sleep next to Landon again, I would never allow him to be close to me again even if it did mean my life. And though I had agreed to ask for help should I need it, asking some man on this ship to let me share his bed for the duration of the pregnancy was not something I could do. “I’ll be fine,” I said. 

Ed knew me well enough by then to know I was holding something back. “Well, will you at least go and let Doctor Finn be sure of that?” 

An hour later Doctor Finn declared that I was indeed pregnant. The birth control I had been using was intended for humans and had failed to work on my physiology. She then asked me how I would like her to proceed. I knew she was offering termination. I couldn’t accept. Not only did the idea not sit well with me, there was the fact that terminating would only shorten my life even further. Once a Kitaran became pregnant, she was bound to the need for a partner for months, even if the pregnancy miscarried or was terminated. I would be unable to survive without the help of a partner for at least eighteen months no matter what choice I made at this point. Remaining pregnant would give me a couple of weeks before I felt the ill effects and slipped into a coma. Terminating would give me far less time than that. I had no idea what to do next. 

“I know you are afraid,” Doctor Finn said, glancing at her scanner. “It’s a big change but whatever you decide we’ll be here to support you.” 

She didn’t understand. She knew nothing about Kitarans. She had no idea that unless I had a partner and enzymes to share, I would die in a few weeks. “How about I take some time to think it over?” I finally said and I fled the sickbay as fast as I could. 

I woke up in the middle of the night that night, terrified beyond measure. I didn’t want to die. I was torn between the idea of just telling Ed the truth and asking him for help or going to the brig to see Landon. Our mission had us several months from earth. He would be there for a while. He would kiss me if I went to see him and that would be enough to keep me alive for an extra week. And yet the very idea of seeing Landon at all filled me with dread and I almost would rather die. But death was so final. 

I was unaware that I had been weeping aloud until the bedroom door opened and Ed came in. I sat there on the bed, hugging my knees and just sobbing while he crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed. 

“Hey, how can I help?” he asked. 

I didn’t take time to think about it. I reached for him and hugged him. Actually, I all but threw myself into his arms. Ed went ahead and pulled me into his lap and hugged me in return. Not firmly like Landon might have done, but gently enough that I could leave at any time. 

“I don’t want to die…”I sobbed. 

“Is that something that happens a lot with your people? Dying in childbirth? Because Doctor Finn won’t let that happen. She’ll do everything she can.” he said reassuringly. 

“It’s not like that,” I continued. “You asked me to tell you if there was a threat to my life or safety. The truth is, the women of my species will die during pregnancy if they don’t have a male partner.” 

“What?” Ed had been taken by surprise by my words. 

“There are enzymes...and without them...without them I’ll die. I was almost desperate enough to go see Landon in the brig. One kiss would probably give me another week to live,” I confessed. “It doesn’t even have to be him but I couldn’t ask...it’s not even because of Jadeera...I just couldn’t ask…” 

“You don’t have to ask,” he said. The next thing I knew, he was kissing me, longingly and gently. He eventually pulled away and rested his forehead against mine. “I’m not gonna let you die.” 

***

I was four months pregnant by the time we returned to earth and Landon was to be transferred out of the brig. I didn’t want to see it happen. I stayed in our quarters until the transfer was done. 

“He’s gone,” Ed told me as he returned to our room. “I guess someone told him you were pregnant. He wanted to know if the baby was his.” 

“What did you tell him?” I asked. 

“I told him the truth. That he would never see the kid because he’d be in prison. And then he wanted to know how you had survived pregnancy so long, where were you getting enzymes,” Ed told me. “And I told him he wasn’t going to get to find out. I think he knew though. He tried to attack me. The guards pulled him back and took him away.” 

“Good,” I said as I went to him and hugged him. “Where are we going next?” 

“Well, the Union has an interest in visiting Kitara now. Maybe we can help them. How does that sound?” 

I smiled a little.”That sounds like a plan to me.”


	2. Epilogue

I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth when I heard the doors whoosh open to the Captain’s quarters. 

“Ed we need to talk,” Commander Grayson said, she sounded upset. 

“Sure, about what?” he asked. 

“Well, Bortus and Gordon and that stupid game they’ve been playing. I can’t take it anymore. You need to make them stop,” Kelly said in frustration. 

“Alright, I’ll talk to them,” he agreed. 

I was finished brushing my teeth but was wearing only a black tank top and black underwear. I could either hide in the bathroom a little longer or leave the bathroom and go get my clothes. I took a deep breath, deciding I was done being afraid of what people would think. 

“What’s with the gravity settings in here anyway?” she asked as I emerged from the bathroom. Kelly caught sight of me and looked a little shocked to see me. “Oh, I get it now. The thing with the gravity anyway.” she said uncomfortably. 

I grabbed my clothes from where I had left them at the end of the bed and pulled them on. Then I went back to the bathroom and shut the door. The door was thick and solid and had I been human I wouldn’t have been able to hear their conversation. My enhanced hearing was probably the only advantage I had over human abilities. 

“How long has this been going on?” Kelly asked. 

“A few months,” he told her. “It wasn’t exactly a secret. I figured you knew.” 

“Well, I didn’t know,” she sounded a little disturbed. “So is it...is she...do you love her?” 

“Yeah,” he replied seriously. “I do love her. It started because she needed me and now, now I guess I need her too.” 

“She’s having a baby Ed. That’s a pretty big commitment to make.” 

“Hey, your guy has like thirty kids, a whole classroom full of them to be responsible for.”

“That’s not the same thing,” Kelly argued. 

“I guess it’s not. Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t change how I feel about her.” 

Kelly fell silent for a moment. “No, I get it. I really do. I am happy for you Ed. I’ll see you later. Just don’t forget to talk to Bortus and Gordon before we all go crazy.” 

The doors closed shut and I exited the bathroom a second time. “Did you mean all that?” 

“You could hear all that?” Ed asked, a little surprised. 

“I can hear a lot of things. I can hear Bortus digesting his dinner from twenty feet away.” 

“I think we can all hear that,” he quipped. “But yeah, I did mean it. I do love you.” 

I went to him and rested my hand on his arm. “I’ve never loved anyone before and I wasn’t sure until recently that that’s what this was, but it is...and…” 

As many times before, he kissed me and I let myself melt against him, knowing that here I was safe and I was loved.


End file.
